Beacon utilization system, method, beacon utilization method

ABSTRACT

In accordance with an embodiment, a beacon utilization system comprises an image forming apparatus, a server and a mobile terminal. The image forming apparatus wirelessly transmits a beacon including identification information, and sends a status to the server. The server receives the identification information from the mobile terminal, and sends map information for displaying the image forming apparatus specified by the identification information to the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal receives the beacon, sends the identification information to the server, receives the map information from the server, and displays a map screen for displaying the status of the image forming apparatus indicating a position of the image forming apparatus on the basis of the map information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 16/451,065filed on Jun. 25, 2019, which is a Continuation of application Ser. No.15/455,434 filed on Mar. 10, 2017, the entire contents of both of whichare incorporated herein by reference.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority fromJapanese Patent Application No. 2016-141735, filed Jul. 19, 2016, theentire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

Embodiments described herein relate generally to a utilization of abeacon technology in relation to an image forming apparatus.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, utilization of a beacon serving as a radio signal isbeing promoted. A typical reception distance of the beacon from atransmitter is a few tens of meters. There is a system that puts atransmitter of a beacon in a store. In the system, if a customer comesto the store, a mobile terminal of the customer receives the beacon.Thereupon, the mobile terminal automatically receives a coupon of thestore from a server, and thus, the user can easily get the coupon of thestore and use the coupon.

An image forming apparatus such as an MFP (Multi-Function Peripheral) isknown (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2012-226350). There is a case in which a plurality ofthe image forming apparatuses such as the MFPs is arranged at one flooror in a certain locale (such as a copy room) in a company and the like.Therefore, there is a demand for the user to select which device to useafter grasping a status such as electric power and a job and the like ofeach of surrounding apparatuses.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the constitution of a beaconutilization system;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing of a mobile terminal;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a map screen;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a status screen;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the map screen corresponding to astatus of an image forming apparatus;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing of a server; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing of the beaconutilization system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with an embodiment, a beacon utilization system comprisesan image forming apparatus, a server and a mobile terminal. The imageforming apparatus wirelessly transmits a beacon including identificationinformation, and sends a status to the server. The server receives theidentification information from the mobile terminal, and sends mapinformation for displaying the image forming apparatus specified by theidentification information to the mobile terminal. The mobile terminalreceives the beacon, sends the identification information to the server,receives the map information from the server, and displays a map screenfor displaying the status of the image forming apparatus indicating aposition of the image forming apparatus on the basis of the mapinformation.

In accordance with an embodiment, a beacon utilization system comprisesan image forming apparatus, a server and a mobile terminal. The imageforming apparatus wirelessly transmits a beacon including firstidentification information and sends a status to the server. The mobileterminal receives the beacon and sends the first identificationinformation and second identification information of a user to theserver. The server stores a job of the user, receives the firstidentification information and the second identification informationfrom the mobile terminal, and sends the job of the user specified by thesecond identification information to the image forming apparatusspecified by the first identification information.

In accordance with an embodiment, a method by a mobile terminal involvesreceiving a beacon transmitted by an image forming apparatus; sendingidentification information of the image forming apparatus included inthe beacon to a server; receiving map information from the server; anddisplaying a map screen for displaying a status of the image formingapparatus indicating a position of the image forming apparatus on thebasis of the map information.

In accordance with an embodiment, a beacon utilization method by asystem which comprises an image forming apparatus, a server and a mobileterminal involves wirelessly transmitting a beacon includingidentification information, and sending a status to the server by theimage forming apparatus; receiving the identification information fromthe mobile terminal, and sending map information for displaying theimage forming apparatus specified by the identification information tothe mobile terminal by the server; and receiving the beacon, sending theidentification information to the server, receiving the map informationfrom the server, and displaying a map screen for displaying the statusof the image forming apparatus indicating a position of the imageforming apparatus on the basis of the map information by the mobileterminal.

Hereinafter, each embodiment is described with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

First Embodiment

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the constitution of a beaconutilization system 100. The beacon utilization system 100 is equippedwith an image forming apparatus 1, a terminal device 2, a server 3 and amobile terminal 4. All the elements 1-4 are connected via a network Nand can mutually carry out communication.

The image forming apparatus 1 is an MFP including a plurality offunctions such as print, scan and the like. A plurality of the imageforming apparatuses 1 is connected to the network N. The image formingapparatus 1 is equipped with a processor 11, a memory 12, a display 13,an operation section 14, a card reader 15 and a transmitter 16. Theoperation section 14 which includes buttons and a touch panel receivesan operation of a user. The card reader 15 reads an ID (Identification)card to acquire identification information of the user. The transmitter16 periodically transmits a beacon including unique identificationinformation of the image forming apparatus 1. The beacon is a radiosignal based on a standard, for example, a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).Bluetooth is a registered trademark. The unique identificationinformation of the image forming apparatus 1 is, for example, a MAC(Media Access Control address) address.

The image forming apparatus 1 regularly notifies the server 3 of theidentification information, a status and an option item to be installedof the image forming apparatus 1. The status includes a status of a job,a status of electric power, presence/absence of an error status, aresidual quantity of toner, a residual quantity of papers and the like.The status of the job refers to the number of uncompleted jobs that theimage forming apparatus 1 has and whether each job is being held orbeing executed. The status of the electric power refers to power-ON orpower-OFF of the power supply of the image forming apparatus 1 and thecurrent mode (sleep mode and ready mode) relating to electric power. Theerror status refers to a case in which there is no sheet in a cassette,sheet jam and a case in which toner becomes empty. The image formingapparatus 1 detects an option item to be installed. The option item is,for example, a finisher including a stapling function and a bookbindingfunction and a hole punch including a hole punching function.

The terminal device 2 which is a PC (Personal Computer) is equipped witha processor 21, a memory 22, a display 23 and an operation section 24.The operation section 24 which is a keyboard or a mouse receives anoperation of a user. The terminal device 2 receives an input ofidentification information of a user such as a password and a login namefrom the user. The terminal device 2 sends the identificationinformation of the user to the server 3, and requests the server 3 tocarry out authentication of the user. The terminal device 2 receives theoperation of the user if it is determined that the user is adaptable.

The server 3 is equipped with a processor 31 and a memory 32. The server3 carries out the authentication of the user if the authentication ofthe user is requested from each of the terminals 1, 2 and 4, and returnsan authentication result to each of the terminals 1, 2 and 4. The server3 stores the status and the option item received from each image formingapparatus 1 in the memory 32 in association with the identificationinformation of each image forming apparatus 1. Furthermore, the memory32 may store the option item in advance in association with theidentification information of each image forming apparatus 1. The server3 holds map information in which a position of each image formingapparatus 1 is regulated in advance.

In the beacon utilization system 100, it is possible for an imageforming apparatus 1 desired by the user to carry out printing, that is,network printing. In the network printing, firstly, the terminal device2 generates a print job through an operation of the user who receivesthe authentication, and sends the print job together with theidentification information of the user to the server 3. The server 3stores the print job received from the terminal device 2 in the memory32 in association with the identification information of the user. Theimage forming apparatus 1 receives print jobs of the user from theserver 3 after carrying out the authentication of the user, and displaysthe print jobs as a list. The image forming apparatus 1 carries out theprint job selected by the user.

The mobile terminal 4 is equipped with a processor 41, a memory 42 and atouch panel 43 (display and operation section). The mobile terminal 4includes an application for using a beacon transmitted by the imageforming apparatus 1. The application receives an input of theidentification information of the user such as the password and thelogin name from the user. The application sends the identificationinformation of the user to the server 3, and requests the server 3 tocarry out the authentication of the user. The application is possible touse various functions if it is determined that the user is adaptable.The mobile terminal 4 receives the beacon transmitted by the imageforming apparatus 1.

Hereinafter, a processing of the mobile terminal 4 at the time the usercarries out the network printing with reference to a flowchart in FIG.2. The processors 11, 21, 31 and 41 of the image forming apparatus 1,the terminal device 2, the server 3 and the mobile terminal 4 executeprograms in the memories 12, 22, 32 and 42 to carry out each followingprocessing.

The user sends the print job from the terminal device 2 to the server 3in order to carry out the network printing. The user carries the mobileterminal 4 at a floor at which the image forming apparatus 1 is locatedin order to carry out the printing. The mobile terminal 4 carries outthe authentication of the user to determine that the user is adaptable.

The mobile terminal 4 automatically starts the application (Act 12) ifreceiving the beacon transmitted by the image forming apparatus 1 (Act11).

The application (mobile terminal 4) sends the identification information(first identification information) of the image forming apparatus 1included in the received beacon and the identification information(second identification information) of the user to the server 3 (Act13). The server 3 sends the map information for displaying the imageforming apparatus 1 specified by the identification information to themobile terminal 4. In the present embodiment, there is a plurality ofimage forming apparatuses 1 around the image forming apparatus 1specified by the identification information. The server 3 sends the mapinformation including the image forming apparatus 1 specified by theidentification information and the image forming apparatuses 1 aroundthe specified image forming apparatus 1 to the mobile terminal 4.Further, the server 3 sends the statuses and the option items of theimage forming apparatus 1 specified by the identification informationand each image forming apparatus 1 around the specified image formingapparatus 1 to the mobile terminal 4.

The application receives the map information and the status and theoption item of each image forming apparatus 1 from the server 3 (Act14).

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a map screen 200.

The application displays the map screen 200 for displaying the status ofthe image forming apparatus 1 which is a map screen indicating aposition of the image forming apparatus 1 specified by theidentification information included in the received beacon (Act 15). Theapplication displays a map of surroundings of the image formingapparatus 1 specified by the received beacon on the map screen 200. Theapplication displays an icon 201 of the image forming apparatus 1specified by the received beacon and icons 202-204 of the image formingapparatuses 1 around the specified image forming apparatus 1.

The application displays a point P indicating the position of the userat a predetermined position corresponding to the image forming apparatus1 specified by the received beacon. The icons 202-204 and the point Pare included in the map information received from the server 3. Theicons 202-204 and the point P may be objects. The application mayreceive the icons 202-204 and the position information of the point Pfrom the server 3, and place the icons 202-204 and the point P on themap to generate the map screen 200.

If receiving the selection of the icons 201-204 of the image formingapparatuses 1 from the user (Act 16), the application displays thestatus of the selected image forming apparatus 1 and a status screen 210indicating the option item to be installed by the image formingapparatus 1 as shown in FIG. 4 (Act 17). The status screen 210 displaysa status of a print job of each user, a status of electric power, aresidual quantity of toner of Y-K and a residual quantity of sheets ineach cassette from the first stage to the third stage of the imageforming apparatus 1.

Furthermore, the application may display the icons 201-204 of therespective image forming apparatuses 1 corresponding to the statuses ofthe respective image forming apparatuses 1 at the time of displaying themap screen 200 in Act 214 as shown in FIG. 5. The icons 201-204corresponding to the statuses of the image forming apparatuses 1 may beincluded in the map information. Further, the application may change theicons 201-204 as the objects according to the statuses.

The application may display the icon 201 of the image forming apparatus1 which is in standby in white and display the icons 202 and 204 of theimage forming apparatuses 1 which are executing the job in black. Theapplication may display the icon 203 of the image forming apparatus 1which is in the error status in black. The application may display thecontent of the error around the icon 203. In this way, the applicationcan display the image forming apparatus 1 which can be immediately usedin such a way as to be easily grasped by the user.

The application may display the icons 201-204 of the respective imageforming apparatuses 1 corresponding to the option items to be installedby the respective image forming apparatuses 1. The icons 201-204corresponding to the statuses of the image forming apparatuses 1 may beincluded in the map information. Further, the application may change theicons 201-204 as the objects according to the option items to beinstalled by the respective image forming apparatuses 1. The applicationmay display the icon 204 of the image forming apparatus 1 having afinisher with a pattern indicating the image forming apparatus with thefinisher.

In a case in which there is a print job corresponding to theidentification information of the user in the server 3, the applicationmay display the image forming apparatus 1 capable of executing the printjob on the map screen 200. For example, in a case in which a print jobneeds the stapling function, the application may display the icon 204 ofthe image forming apparatus 1 having the finisher, for example, in ablinking manner in order to indicate that the print job of the user canbe carried out. In this case, the server 3 may send the map screen 200including an instruction for displaying the icon 204 in a blinkingmanner to the mobile terminal 4. Otherwise, the server 3 may send amessage indicating that the job of the user is a print job that needsthe stapling function to the mobile terminal 4. Then, the mobileterminal 4 may indicate that the image forming apparatus 1 having thestapling function is capable of carrying out the print job of the user.The server 3 may display only the icons 201-204 (for example, the icon204) of the image forming apparatuses 1 capable of carrying out theprint job of the user.

Further, after an image forming apparatus 1 is selected on the mapscreen 200 (Act 16), the application may receive the information of thestatus and the option item from the server 3 regarding the status andthe option item of the selected image forming apparatus 1 (Act 17).Then, the application may display the status and the option item of theselected image forming apparatus 1 in the processing in Act 17.

If the mobile terminal 4 receives beacons from the plurality of theimage forming apparatuses 1 (Act 11), the application sends theidentification information of each of the image forming apparatuses 1 tothe server 3 (Act 12 and Act 13). The server 3 sends the map informationincluding all the image forming apparatuses 1 specified by theidentification information included in the respective beacons to themobile terminal 4. The application displays the map screen 200 in suchaway as to include all the image forming apparatuses 1 serving asrespective transmission sources of the received beacons (Act 14 and Act15).

Herein, the application determines a distance from the mobile terminal 4to the image forming apparatus 1 in, for example, three stages accordingto intensity of the received beacon. The application sends each distancefrom the mobile terminal 4 to the image forming apparatus 1 to theserver 3. The server 3 may calculate the position of the point P(position of the user) on the basis of each distance and send the mapinformation including the position of the point P to the mobile terminal4.

Further, the mobile terminal 4 may calculate the point P indicating theposition of the user and display the point P on the basis of eachdistance from the mobile terminal 4 to the image forming apparatus 1.The mobile terminal 4 may notify the user of the closest image formingapparatus 1 on the basis of each distance. The mobile terminal 4 maydisplay the icons 201-204 of the closest image forming apparatuses 1 byblinking the icons 201-204 or changing the color thereof so that it isunderstood that the image forming apparatuses 1 are the closest.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing of the server 3 at thetime the user carries out the network printing.

The server 3 receives the identification information of the imageforming apparatus 1 and the identification information of the user fromthe mobile terminal 4 (Act 21).

The server 3 sends the map information including the image formingapparatus 1 specified by the identification information and the imageforming apparatuses 1 around the specified image forming apparatus 1 tothe mobile terminal 4. Further, the server 3 sends the statuses and theoption items of the image forming apparatus 1 specified by theidentification information and each image forming apparatus 1 around thespecified image forming apparatus 1 to the mobile terminal 4. (Act 22).

In the present embodiment, the user can easily browse the position andthe status of the surrounding image forming apparatus 1 and the optionitem to be installed by the image forming apparatus 1 on the map screen200 of the mobile terminal 4. In this way, the user can select a properimage forming apparatus 1 on the map screen 200.

Second Embodiment

Hereinafter, a processing of a beacon utilization system 100A at thetime the user carries out the network printing is described withreference to a flowchart in FIG. 7.

The user sends the print job from the terminal device 2 to the server 3in order to carry out the network printing. The user carries the mobileterminal 4 at a floor at which the image forming apparatus 1 is locatedin order to carry out the printing. The mobile terminal 4 carries outthe authentication of the user to determine that the user is adaptable.

The mobile terminal 4 starts the application if receiving the beacontransmitted by the image forming apparatus 1 (Act 31). The applicationsends the identification information of the image forming apparatus 1included in the received beacon and the identification information ofthe user to the server 3 (Act 32).

The server 3 receives the identification information of the imageforming apparatus 1 and the identification information of the user fromthe mobile terminal 4 (Act 41).

The server 3 sends the print job of the user to the image formingapparatus 1 specified from the identification information received fromthe mobile terminal 4 (Act 43) if there is the print job of the user(YES in Act 42). The server 3 ends the processing if there is no printjob of the user (NO in Act 42).

The image forming apparatus 1 receives the print job of the user fromthe server 3 (Act 51).

The image forming apparatus 1 can set whether the print job is executedimmediately or after receiving an instruction of the user in a case ofreceiving the print job for network printing using the beacon.

The image forming apparatus 1 executes the print job without theoperation of the operation section 14 by the user (Act 53) if it is setthat the print job is executed immediately (YES in Act 52).

The image forming apparatus 1 executes the print job (Act 53) afterreceiving the instruction from the user through the operation section 14(YES in Act 54) if it is set that the print job is executed afterreceiving the instruction of the user (NO in Act 52).

In the present embodiment, at the time the user arrives at the imageforming apparatus 1, since the image forming apparatus 1 is in a stateof already executing the print job or already storing the print job ofthe user, time until the completion of the execution of the print jobcan be shortened.

Furthermore, even in the present embodiment, the application of themobile terminal 4 may receive the map information from the server 3 ifreceiving the beacon transmitted by the image forming apparatus 1. Then,the application may display the map screen 200 for displaying the statusof the image forming apparatus 1 which is a map screen indicating theposition of the image forming apparatus 1 on the basis of the mapinformation.

While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments havebeen presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit thescope of the invention. Indeed, the novel embodiments described hereinmay be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, variousomissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodimentsdescribed herein may be made without departing from the spirit of theinvention. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended tocover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope andspirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method by a server, comprising: storing jobinformation specifying a job associated with a user; receiving firstidentification information that specifies each of a plurality of imageforming apparatuses and a status sent by each of the plurality of imageforming apparatuses; storing the status in association with the firstidentification information; receiving the first identificationinformation identifying an image forming apparatus among the pluralityof image forming apparatuses and the second identification informationidentifying a user from a mobile terminal; in response to receiving thefirst identification information and the second identificationinformation from the mobile terminal, sending the job informationassociated with the user specified by the second identificationinformation to the image forming apparatus specified by the firstidentification information.
 2. The method according to claim 1, whereinthe first identification information comprises a media access address.3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second identificationinformation comprises a password and login name.
 4. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising: receiving a print job from the mobileterminal.
 5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:sending the status of the image forming apparatus to the mobileterminal, wherein the status is at least one of a status of a job, astatus of electric power, presence/absence of an error status, aresidual quality of toner, and a residual quantity of papers.
 6. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising: regularly receiving theidentification information, a status of a job, a status of electricpower, presence/absence of an error status, a residual quantity oftoner, and a residual quantity of papers from the image formingapparatus.